Thanks everyone for taking the time to help. I now have many links to professional security related sites. I believe the average home user won't understand a thing explained on them. Everyone I know (besides the one guy working as an IT professional) is worried about Internet Security, but hasn't got a clue on how secure their system is and what the3y are supposed to do. Many of them already have flat rate ADSL Internet Connections at home, which they leave open 24/7 (including me). It's just soo cool to listen to free international Internet radio and have the latest world wide news pop up in front of you... But what are the risks? As scared as I am I put an old box with a Gnatbox light in front of my personal computer not allowing anything by default, neither in nor out. This causes a lot of hazzle with many web based software and media player. One friend of mine installed Agnitums free Outpost firewall, another one picked ZoneAlarm. None of them really know how to set this up, nor what can or will happen with or without a firewall. Neither do I fully understand the possible threads for a private users connected to the Internet. Especially because most private users won't be concerned about a DOS attack or forced system crashes. The main concern would be any kind of information exploits and Trojans which would exactly allow this or even overtake a system.
Maybe you find the time to answer some of my more specific questions: All assumptions are based on my example out of the box W2K system, with all service packs and security updates until today installed. Most Trojans would probably more likely infect a system through an email virus (another highly important subject <g>), is that true? Can a malicious person gain full remote access to that system via planting a Trojan on it? Or copy files from it? Read files on it? Is this an easy task? How much time will someone need and what steps are involved to do any of this? (I am not looking for a detailed hack instruction <g>) Thanks again for any comments Best wishes Marc --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the digest version first unsubscribe, then e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive of the last 1000 messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
